’bout ship when the wind of faith shifts.  And it will shift in a lifetime!  How often must depend upon the length of that lifetime.  Any kind of tie renders this more difficult.  One shows more respect to truth by maintaining a position which enables one to say to her, “Take me whither thou wilt; I am ready to go.”  A priest cannot very well say this.  He must be endowed with something more than courage to draw back.  If, having gone so far, he does not become celestial, he is repulsive; and this is so true that I cannot instance a single good pattern of the kind, not even M. de Lamennais.  He must therefore march ever onward, and bluntly declare, “I shall always see things in the same light as I have seen them, and I shall never see them in a different light.”  Would life be endurable for an hour if one had to say that?

With regard to the matter of M. A——­, and putting all personal consideration upon one side, my syllogism is as follows.  One must never swear to anything of which one is not absolutely sure.  Now one is never sure of not modifying one’s beliefs at some future time, however certain one may be of the present and of the past.  Therefore ...  I, too, would have sworn at one time, and yet....

What you say of the antagonists of Christianity is very true.  I have, as it happens, incidentally made some rather curious researches upon this point which, when completed, might form a somewhat interesting narrative entitled History of Incredulity in Christianity.  The consequences would appear triumphant to the orthodox, and especially the first, viz., that Christianity has rarely been attacked hitherto except in the name of immorality and of the abject doctrines of materialism—­by blackguards in so many words.  This is a fact, and I am prepared to prove it.  But it admits, I think, of an explanation.  In those days, people were bound to believe in religions.  It was the law at that time, and those who did not believe placed themselves outside the general order.  It is time that another order began.  I believe too that it has begun, and the last generation in Germany furnished several admirable specimens of it:  Kant, Herder, Jacobi, and even Goethe.

Forgive me for writing to you in this strain.  But I do for you what I am not doing for those who are dearest to me in the world, to my sister, for instance, to whom I yesterday wrote less than half a page, so overburdened am I with work.  I solace myself with the anticipation of the conversation which we shall have after my examination, for I mean to take a holiday then.  There is, however, much that I should like to write to you about what you tell me of yourself.  There, too, I should attempt to refute you, and with more show of being entitled to do so.  Let me tell you that there are certain things the mere conception of which entails one’s being called upon to realise them.

Good-bye, my very dear friend....  Believe in the sincerity of my affection.